A method for producing an embossing roller for the continuous embossing of the surface of a thermoplastic film is known from German Patent 34 05 985 C2, in which the surface structure is derived from a natural grain pattern by means of multiple casting processes. Although this known method leads to the desired result of producing a silicone embossing roller with a continuous surface structure, a significant disadvantage of this known method is the high cost of carrying out the intermediate steps to create the surface structure.
A method of the type described in the preamble of claim 1 is known from German Patent 44 41 216 C2, in which the embossing structure in the embossing surface of an embossing roller made of silicone rubber is created directly by laser beam processing, and the embossing roller is moved, in a location-and surface-dependent manner that is generally known, corresponding to the surface structure of a pattern. This known method also achieves high pattern fidelity, especially for very fine surface structures. An advantage of this known teaching is that the embossing surface of the embossing roller is created directly without any intermediate steps. This results in considerable time savings as well as the option of producing a large variety of different surface structures in comparison to the known method previously described. A disadvantage is that the silicone rubber rollers are very sensitive and susceptible to damage, with the result that after a certain embossing and operating time the existing embossing roller must be replaced by a new embossing roller, which in turn requires complicated processing of the embossing surface, using a laser beam.